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Go Fly a Kite
The School of Design and its predecessor institutions (Faculty of Built Environment, School of Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design, etc.) long had a tradition of “Project Week” where for one week each semester all other classes would be suspended in favour of a one week design exercise. In the early 90s as the First Year Industrial Design lecturer I ran a variety of projects with my class. A favourite was Egg Drop and another was the Kite Project. Kite Project Project Week 1991 08.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 16.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 07.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 32.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 30.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 29.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 20.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 17.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 19.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 09.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 25.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 04.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 01.jpg Kite Project I’d buy offcuts and spare pieces of spinnaker cloth from a local sailmaker, dowel, string, etc. from the F Block Workshop and students would spend the week researching and building kites in teams. Many of the kites followed established patterns from books, others were unconventional structures using unconventional materials such as this polystyrene foam creation. The wind being a ruthless tester of symmetry and aerodynamics few of the unconventional kites were very successful but no one seemed to mind. Off to Alex At the end of the week we’d make our way up the coast to Alexander Headlands to fly the kites on the beach where I’d shoot numerous slides of students working on and flying their kites. All too often hurried alterations were necessary to obtain some semblance of flight. Kite Project Project Week 1991 15.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 14.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 13.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 12.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 10.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 26.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 28.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 18.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 22.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 21.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 27.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 31.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 24.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 23.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 05.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 03.jpg Kite Project Project Week 1991 06.jpg The most successful kites were distant specs in the sky, almost always flying inland. I recall a couple of kites breaking strings and falling to earth, one on the road behind the beach, another far inland never to be recovered. No one died (as far as we know!) One year the wind was blowing out to sea and a magnificent Cody War Kite broke its line to crash into the surf. It looked equally at home in the breakers as it did in the sky. Its owners eventually swam out and retrieved it. No one drowned. Occasionally students would tell me that the kite was their favourite design project of the year which always made me feel a little ambivalent. Still, who wouldn’t want to go fly a kite? Category:Field trip Category:Project Week Category:Personal Accounts